Quake Forever: Operation Counterstrike
by A.Signia
Summary: They said the mission failed. The survivors didn't.
1. Detours

Brammer walked into the Squadron Tactics Room. It was rows of men, back to back, sitting at computer monitors, watching the fight from all views.  
  
One of the workers stepper up, "Mr. Brammer, sir we have unfortunate news."  
  
"Well, let's hear it then…"  
  
"Team Alpha has been eliminated. We are back to where we started. We are still holding them off at the exits. What should we do sir?"  
  
"Send Team Beta in through the pick-up station then use explosives to destroy the station and break into the hallway."  
  
"Yes, sir." He returned to his communications monitor.  
  
"GET DOWN!" A huge chunk of the wall shot out, trailing smoke and fire behind it. The pick-up station was the equivalent of a drive-through only backwards. This spot was for vehicles to unload whatever cargo they may have brought for the complex.  
  
The soldiers rushed in, M16s in hand; blowing away any freak enemy they could spot. They had reached the prime technology development center. This is where the technology needed to operate the slipgates was produced. Years of research in the form of computer chips and robot parts were being lost in the firefight. Silicon boards melted away. A soldier radioed in, "We've made it to the door to the chemical research room. DAMN! It's locked."  
  
"Can't you just blast it open?" The communications advisor asked.  
  
"No, it's an armored auto-lock. Where is the nearest control panel?"  
  
"Let's see…" The advisor scanned the maps on the computer screen "…it says here the only door lock controls are in the main security office."  
  
"All the way at the entrance?!" The soldier complained.  
  
"Unfortunately, yes."  
  
The group changed their direction into the main offices. Most of the grunts had been cleared here because of Alpha team's doing and the forces outside the offices. Bullets flew through the windows, leading to the night sky. "Crap, the door to the security center is blocked by all this debris. It'll take too much time to clear them out by hand." The soldier held the radio to his mouth and yelled, "Any other entrances to security?" The communicator checked again, "Yeah, the server room should be near there. Once you're in there the door will connect you to the security offices."  
  
The server room door slowly swung open. Uneasy soldiers stepped in. The room was filled with hundreds of computers slowly buzzing and humming away. The scary part of this all was this room was apparently untouched. There was no blood, no destruction, no bullet holes or anything. Boots slid along the smooth tile floor.  
  
They had made it to a door at the right side of the room. No grunts, rotweilers, nothing. A soldier pulled the door gently. They all gave a sigh of relief, walking into the security center. "Okay, which switch to open the door to chemical research?" The communicator brought up his maps again "Ok go for…uh, guys…something's following you GET DOWN!"  
  
"RRRAAAGGGHHH" A torn computer hit the wall.  
  
A soldier near the doorway looked around, "What the?? Holy…"  
  
It was a short furry animal, white hair. It bore two loping claws as arms and two short legs, giving it a surprising jump that it used to latch onto the soldier's face.  
  
"AHHH GET IT OFF ME! AHHH!"  
  
It clawed away at his face. Bits of skull, flesh, and blood smacked against the wall.  
  
"Get off him, asshole" Eight pellets stuck into the beasts head as it flopped off the corpse.  
  
"Aw, Christ, he cleaned Hall's whole head right out."  
  
"Stop moaning, Youngman, let's get this fucking mission over with. Wallace contact HQ again and open that damn door."  
  
"Alright, Reeves." "This is Wallace, HQ we are fine, what do we have to do to get this door open?"  
  
"Alright, all sub-section power just went out. Your going to have to pull the level labeled CRD01 to ready the hydraulics. Because of the power failure you'll have to manually reactivate electricity. Go back into the main offices and head to the 'Transfer Matter Research'. From their go to equipment storage and get all the electrical supplies you can hold, you're going to need to replace a lot of the fried ones to get that door open."  
  
"Damn. Another detour." 


	2. Three If By Slipgate

QUAKE FOREVER: OPERATION REDEMPTION  
  
It all went horribly wrong. The scientists were running another test on the slipgates overnight. Little did they know, they were being watched. Careful observers watched, waiting for the perfect time to make their move. This was it. One of the scientists wheeled a small empty cart onto the slipgate platform. Another scientist flipped the switch, in order to send a magnetic beam down the slipgate chamber and transfer the cart to the slipgate at the other end of the labs. The box faded away from the chamber. At the other end where it should have reappeared, something went awry. A group of grunts formed at the slipgate. Armed with shotguns they blasted away at the scientists and guards. The alarm sounded. We were being attacked from the inside, out.  
  
"MEN! I HAVE TRAINED YOU TO DO YOUR BEST SO WHEN YOU ARE CALLED TO DO YOUR BEST YOU WILL FIGHT WITH ALL YOUR BEST." The soldiers stared in confusion at their sergeant.  
  
"Uhh…yes sir?"  
  
"WHAT WAS THAT? I CAN'T HEEAAR YOOUU?"  
  
"YES SIR" The troops cheered, marching out of the barracks.  
  
It was 4:15AM. The grunts had already taken control of the slipgate complex. Gaining it back was the hard part.  
  
"Alpha team, go!" The first team stormed through the front entrance. They met with the hordes of grunts and rotweilers pouring out of the main office doors. Shots ripped apart the precious documents and storage items. However, back at the military base, it was more hectic than this.  
  
"What the hell do you mean we don't know who they are?!" The tactical advisor slammed his fist down on the table.  
  
"We don't even know where they are coming from, Mr. Brammer! Like I said, until we can get scientists down there to scan the slipgate departing coordinates, the only piece of evidence we have is the word "QUAKE" flashing on all the monitors," The research leader answer.  
  
"Mr. Klatt, are you sure they aren't just some kind of…hacker terrorists or something?"  
  
"Although their weapons look conventional, this first wave's equipment is far more advanced than our own. They fire at amazing speeds and require no reloading. We have yet to discover how they are doing so but until then, we'll have to hope our soldiers are smart enough to use their fallen enemies weapons."  
  
"Okay. So we have no idea who, where, or what…but do we know why they are doing this?"  
  
"We have no idea, sir…"  
  
The military leader interrupted him "Klatt, Brammer - enough bickering. Obviously we are clueless about almost every aspect of the enemy, but if we can't hold the slipgate complex, who knows what will happen. Brammer, you ARE the tactical advisor so you shouldn't worry about such questions at the moment. Please decide how we will follow out Operation Counterstrike and what our steps are after it."  
  
Mr. Brammer calmed himself down, "Sorry Mr. Fent. If the Operation Counterstrike goes according to plan on everything else we will try to escort a group of scientists down into the labs to get information on where these guys are coming from. If we can't get the scientists down there, we'll have to have the soldiers do it on their own. I'm not sure where it goes from there."  
  
Mr. Fent spoke "Mr. Brammer won't it be easiest to knock out the slipgates from their power core, the source of their energy?"  
  
Mr. Klatt interrupted "Yes that is possible but if the core was to be destroyed, the massive amounts of super compressed chemical energy would cause a huge explosion. It's not worth the risk of finding out how powerful this explosion could be. That is one of the most important reasons we are trying to gain back this site."  
  
"Alright," Mr. Fent closed the conversation "We'll have to end this discussion for now. Mr. Brammer they are calling you to the Squadron Tactics Room. I'll see you all later." 


	3. Zombie Huntin'

"Get in here quick!" Youngman scampered into the room, barely making it when Reeves slammed the door."  
  
"What the hell was that?" Youngman gasped.  
  
"I dunno. HQ's been calling 'em 'fiends'" Wallace answered. "Same thing that got Hall"  
  
"Wallace, this is the transfer matter research room?" Reeves asked  
  
"This is it."  
  
"GET DOWN GRUNTS!" Reeves yelled.  
  
The trio squatted under the cabinets. Clunky soldiers lumbered around, throwing desks and tables over.  
  
Reeves gritted his teeth. "Each of us takes one, ones in front, two on the sides. Pop up in three, two…"  
  
The grunts fell easily. Their major fault was their stupidity. This room was spotted with large glass tubes filled with beams of electricity, large magnets, and other electrical oddities. The strangest piece in the room was in the back of it. It laid upon a table, hooked in. It was a rifle. Nothing like the soldiers had ever seen before.  
  
"What the hell were the scientists doing with a pretty gun like this?" Reeves asked, eyeing over the piece of equipment.  
  
Wallace flipped through some papers found next to it. "I don't think it's a gun. It looks like it was meant to hook up to a larger machine, in order to teleport smaller items quicker, kinda like a…a mini-version of the slipgates.  
  
Reeves threw the strap around his shoulder. "Let's see if it's a gun or not."  
  
"I don't think this is a good idea…maybe we should just"  
  
"Stop whining Youngman," He aimed the rifle at a window and pulled the trigger. The windows exploded into millions of fragments of glass.  
  
"Nothing came out of the barrel?!" Youngman looked with suspicion.  
  
Reeves smiled "It's a gun."  
  
"C'mon guys let's head out we gotta get to the equipment storage room," said Wallace.  
  
He flicked the light-switch on. Whatever light bulbs weren't destroyed painfully glowed. "Well it seems this power grid hasn't been knocked out." Wallace said proudly.  
  
"Enough technical chat, where the door to the equipment room." Reeves complained. The trio looked around, no door to be found.  
  
The trio looked around. Large iron grates stuck out of the wall with wires reaching to multiple parts of it. "What the hell does this thing do?" Youngman questioned.  
  
Wallace glanced at it. Looks like some sort of…control system." He pulled a wire up to a section of the grating and the security cameras shot out of the wall. Another wire opened a drawer full of mini-computers. "One of these must open the door…but there has gotta be hundreds of combinations. Damnit…maybe I can…" Wallace mumbled away.  
  
Youngman slowly stepped back in fear "Uhh…uhh…uh-oh"  
  
"SHIT!" Reeves opened fire on grunts that came in from the previous room. Youngman supplied some flying lead too.  
  
He tried to yell over the fire "AREN'T THESE THE GUYS WE JUST KILLED?"  
  
"I THINK SO." Reeves yelled in response.  
  
"THEN WHAT THE FUCK IS GOING ON?"  
  
"WHO THE HELL CARES, JUST SHOOT! WALLACE CAN WE GET SOME HELP HERE? THESE GUYS DON'T LOOK LIKE THEY'RE GONNA STOP!"  
  
"I'm trying to get the damn door to open! Hold them off, don't let 'em shoot the electrical grate, 'kay?" Wallace yelled lazily.  
  
"GOD DAMNIT WALLACE"  
  
The grunts were somehow undead. After getting hit they would fall, only just to come back up again. They wouldn't stop until their flesh was ripped off to the bone.  
  
"YOUNGMAN WATCH OUT!" Reeves deep voice bellowed "YOUR POWER ARMOR IS ALMOST DEAD!"  
  
"SHIT! IF THIS THING GOES DEAD, SO AM I!"  
  
"HOLD IN THERE I'M GONNA NEED YOUR HELP KEEPING THESE GUYS OFF"  
  
A bullet ricocheted off of the grate Wallace worked at, missing him by an inch, "HEY! WHAT THE F DID I SAY ABOUT SHOOTING THE GRATE?"  
  
"QUIT YOUR MOANING AND GET UP HERE WALLACE!"  
  
"Ya' know Reeves! If they break this thing…" Reeves ignored Wallace.  
  
"HOWS YOUR ARMOR YOUNGMAN?"  
  
"BAD! SHOULD I…CRAP ITS OUT!"  
  
"GET DOWN! I'LL HOLD THESE GUYS OFF FOR NOW. RUN THE EMERGENCY BACKUP POWER AND GET BACK UP HERE!" The fight against the re-animated terrors was a long one.  
  
Wallace's mind clicked: Emergency Backup Power… 


	4. Technical Difficulties

"Okay I think I got it!" Wallace tapped a wire to another piece of grating. The wall behind them began to lower. Behind this wall, was another wall. However above it was a platform, in front of the door they needed to get to.  
  
Reeves turned his head from the action towards the door, still firing his gun in the process, "How the hell are we gonna reach that door?"  
  
"Crap!" Wallace yelled "Gimme a couple more minutes! I'm gonna have to find the right piece to raise steps or something!"  
  
"NO! We don't have a couple more minutes! Youngman hold 'em off for now!" Reeves ordered.  
  
"YESSIR, REEVES" Youngman acknowledged.  
  
Reeves ducked down and grabbed some of the fallen corpses. Because the bodies were occasionally popping back up to life, it was hard to tell the difference. Reeves used the living ones anyway. He piled them up just enough to reached the platform and pulled the other two away from what they were doing. "LET'S GET THE HELL OUT OF HERE" Reeves and Wallace climbed up the pile of half-living corpses, Youngman did the same but backwards, so that he could shoot at the zombies on the way up. Reeves swung the new gun he found, aptly named the Telefragger, in front of him and gave it a couple of shots, "THIS THING WORKS PRETTY GOOD."  
  
They scrambled into the next room. The three felt quite awkward, the last room had been so loud, the bullets, the screaming…other than the groans coming from the undead grunts, and the trio's heavy breathing, there wasn't much noise at all.  
  
A narrow hallway, lined with mops, wastebaskets, and tool kits, lay ahead of them. Youngman gasped for air, "I can't fight anymore. My power armor is pretty much dead. A couple more bullets and I'm out of this life for good."  
  
Reeves shuffled around some junk, "Maybe we can find a battery or something…"  
  
"I'll be down there. Remember we gotta get the electrical supplies to open that door."  
  
Three. They were the only three. Three out of eight. They don't even remember losing the others. Maybe they weren't dead. Maybe they just got set off. Who knows? Right now all they had to care about was deactivated the slipgates. How were they supposed to go at that again? One of the soldiers remembered hearing something about sending scientists in?  
  
"I got some!" Wallace's hand flew up, grasping some wires and other miscellaneous pieces.  
  
"Got any batteries in there?" Youngman yelled from down the hall.  
  
"Maybe"  
  
Reeves shuffled through some more junk and walked to the end of the hall with Youngman.  
  
Wallace lie on the floor. Stretching pieces of wire here and there, plugging sockets in, and holding screws in place. "Okay, maybe one or two more…" Wallace tinkered around some more. "There. Beyond this door should be the prime technology development room, where we came from. Once we are there we'll flip the switch to the door again and hope things go well.  
  
After digging through some rubble and debris they made it to the prime technology development room. Reeves headed to the control room and flicked some switches. The door rose about an inch and fell down again. "SHIT! What went wrong?" Wallace yelled. Reeves responded from the enclosed control room "Says here the battery's out" He said it over the megaphone speaker just for fun. "I'll have to go back to the equipment room" Wallace said, "We'll need another power source." He walked to the left back into the dark hallway.  
  
He heard something. Wallace raised his head. It sounded like breathing "Youngman you haven't recuperated from back there, yet?!" Wallace looked around. The breathing got a little louder. Reeves and Youngman heard it too. They turned their heads.  
  
"Uhh, Wallace?"  
  
"Yeah, Youngman?"  
  
"We got a little problem here…"  
  
"Yeah I know, we are going to need to use someone's power armor to open this damn door."  
  
"No, I mean a serious problem." 


	5. Decisive Action

Freakish creatures had invaded the complex, writhing, insect-like creatures. They had the upper torso of a man, and the rest of the body was that of a large scorpions. They bore no claws but they somehow shot out a cluster of small needles at their opponent. "SHIT WALLACE, OPEN THAT DAMN DOOR! WE NEED TO GET IN THERE!" Reeves yelled from the next room.  
  
The creatures crawled ever closer to the group. Reeves knocked a table on its side and used it for some minor defense. He pulled out the Telefragger to help "join the cause." The freaks' insides imploded.  
  
"Crap!" Wallace grunted to himself. The only way to get this door open was to use someone's power armor. But who's? Youngman was already out of power, and Reeves would need his…but my…mine? Without this armor I'm dead! He checked his supply. A small LCD screen read: POWER AMOUNT: 79%. If we don't get this door open we're dead. "Uh, REEVES? YOU GOT ANY POWER LEFT?"  
  
Reeves looked down for a second. "YEAH! I'M AT 35%" Crap. Uhh. Uhm. "REEVES! I am gonna need your power armor!" Reeves rushed over, having to leave the armor-less Youngman out to fight.  
  
"Don't you have any power left in yours?" Reeves questioned.  
  
"N-no, I tried hooking mine up, and uhm, a fuse broke! It sucked all the power out of my suit."  
  
"All right, here" Reeves tugged the armor off and let Wallace hook a plug into it.  
  
The LCD screen's numbers rolled all the way down to 14%, when the door opened. "Shit that's barely anything" Reeves argued, "At least we got the door open. Youngman, c'mon! Through the door quick!" The bunch ran in, quickly lowering the huge mechanical door behind them.  
  
"We're safe!" Youngman yelled.  
  
"Yes, but only for now" Wallace corrected, "This…is the chemical research room, one step closer to the slipgates. He pulled out a map. The entrance to the short-range slipgates is right in front of us. The long-range ones are just beyond that; they are the source of this trouble. C'mon, get up guys. We gotta get to the end of this section."  
  
Reeves and Wallace popped up, with some struggle Youngman got up too. Chemical Research was filled was a twisting-labyrinthine maze. Each table  
  
was topped with glowing green materials, like the stuff you'd see in a movie. Radiation was filling their lungs. They needed to get out of there quick. They had found themselves somewhere near the end of the room, but confronted with a problem. There was a chemical spill. It was very thick, and far too wide to jump. Reeves tried constructing a bridge of office materials but he could only reach halfway before the rest melted or burned. There was an exit to Chemical Storage, however this was the source of the spill, making it quite impossible to get into. The only other room to access from here was the waste management sanction; this would bring them farther from their goal, and was somewhat of a dead-end. It was their only option.  
  
The waste management sanction had one small office in front, leading into a mechanical nightmare. It was a dark, damp environment, filled with black-grime, rusty machines, melting, crushing, and disintegrated garbage. It stunk like hell too. They dodged in and out of super-massive trash compactors. They sped through boiling hot cages for melting biohazard materials. They blasted apart, prototype machines that digitally ripped material into space fabric. All their hard work paid off. There only way out now was through a system of pipes, tubes, and narrow tunnels. They would be traveling the roads made for harmful gas and non-recyclable materials, but they were fit for kings. 


	6. One Step Closer

"Move over!"  
  
"Your foot is in my face!"  
  
"C'mon get out of the way!"  
  
The three bulky men crawled through the narrow pipe ways of the complex. At first it was easy except for the lack of space, then the lack of air. Soon gases filled the little air they had left. They were in a lot of trouble. After about ten minutes of crawling Youngman feinted. Turning around and going back would take just as long as going forward. They had to continue going forward. They dragged on through the dank tunnels, only interrupted by short inserted gratings looking into radiation-filled rooms. It seemed the farther they traveled in the thicker the toxin grew. At some point, when they looked out the bent rusted grating, the entire room was filled with radioactive waste.  
  
Although this looked like the most dangerous room they'd seen yet, it was their destination, the chemical storage rooms. Vats of glowing poison sat ready for distribution around the base. Unfortunately the venom took the pleasure of distributing itself throughout the complex.  
  
"So this is the source of all that green shit," Reeves huffed.  
  
"C'mon Reeves we gotta get Youngman out of here," Wallace instructed.  
  
Such a task would be simple however the pipe they had been traveling in came to its destination in the room at the ceiling, meaning it was about a thirty-foot fall from the tube to the chemical-riddled floor. The jump was far too high, especially when one of the three was unconscious. There was nothing to break their fall but the thick hazardous fluid.  
  
"How the hell are we gonna get down?" Wallace grieved.  
  
"We got two options," Reeves began digging around his pack, "We can do a suicide jump into that acid goo," He dug around some more "or," He pulled out a handful of junk, containing a flare, a flashlight, and some miscellaneous metal garbage, "We can make ourselves some stairs."  
  
"Where'd you get that crap?"  
  
"From the supply room"  
  
"How are we gonna get a flashlight to get three people down a thirty-foot drop?"  
  
"Just watch, your not the only technological person here, ya' know..."  
  
Wallace rolled his eyes. He was exhausted from carrying Youngman the whole way. He was still alive, his status meter said so, he just wasn't able to handle the gas. Wallace wouldn't be too angry if he was dead anyway. He was just slowing them all down.  
  
Reeves crawled around, peeking out the grating, picking the right section of tubing to begin his experiment. He took a good guess and laid the mess of equipment down. He unscrewed the top of the flashlight and popped the large batteries out. He aimed the bulb and its reflective base in a strategic position. He placed the metal junk in a circle around the batteries.  
  
"Hold on, we're in for a quick fall" Reeves advised.  
  
Wallace gripped Youngman tighter.  
  
Reeves ripped the cap off the flare and the red flame immediately mixed with the gassy air, heated up the batteries, (their heat bounced off the bulb to increase the power) Wallace threw his head down, and the batteries exploded, the metal shot throw the thick metal tube's siding. The other end of tube began to bend down. It was going fast. Wallace's heart skipped every other beat. The tube bent on a three or foot angle and stopped.  
  
"What the hell?" Wallace yelled.  
  
"Shit! It was supposed to slide down! We're not even half way there!" Reeves explained.  
  
"Well...do something!"  
  
Reeves aimed his rifle at the hole-spotted rim and shot multiple rounds at it.  
  
The tube fell the way it was supposed to. It was going fast now. The tunnel hit the cement ground with a smash, ripped through it and aimed in the chemicals.  
  
"SHIT!" Reeves proclaimed once more. The tube was now on a very sharp angle, which the three slowly slid down into the bio-toxin. They had one quick second to pull off a maneuver to save themselves. While they were sliding, Reeves kicked open the grating and flew onto the concrete surface. The Youngman-bearing-Wallace followed. They were another step closer. The gates from which the demons spawned from were ever closer. Supplies were short, time was short, and hope was even shorter. 


	7. Blood

With a few temperate slaps and some water Youngman rose from his unconscious state. The gas had left his lungs but his health was not what Reeves and Wallace cared about. It was his firepower.  
  
It wasn't uncommon to see the acidic ooze to bubble but Wallace realized some other movement in the fluid. These bubbles seemed larger than most. But when the layer of glowing slime poured off of whatever it was, they quickly realized this was no bubble. These were bodies. Soldier bodies were rising from the nuclear fallout and the group was going to need ever bullet they had.  
  
Youngman wiped a drip of saliva off his lip, gained a weak form of stableness, and unloaded a few burst fires of the freaks. They didn't know where the feed of soldiers was coming from but it wasn't important. There key now was to get to the filtration plant and survive while doing so.  
  
Flashes of brass danced around the room, holding the slow-moving grunts back. These grunts were different. The radiation mutated them. There skin was cracked and gray, they moved rather slow and fired their damaged guns very inaccurately. The bullets seemed to explode in a rather angry and barbaric fashion. They were hard to take down though. Their muscles were cramped in the clunky armor, sometimes ripping and bulging out of the armor itself. Even when they seemed to have fallen to their death the got back up again. Not all of them were slow, though. Some had mutations to their legs that made them rather fast. These were a more formidable opponent because they had ditched their guns and used their mutated claws to strike down their prey.  
  
The chemical storage area was six compartments large. Each compartment contained eight vats. Each vat was about 15 feet wide and 30 feet long. Each vat brewed a countless number of mutant grunts and freaks. Ammo was short. Reeves tossed his empty M16 into the burning slime and began firing double handedly with grunt shotguns. He felt a special keenness about them but his good aim was soon interrupted by his lack of firepower. He couldn't figure it out. The grunts seemed to never run out of the strange looking shells but when Reeves ripped one out of there decaying hands he ran out of munitions in seconds. What were they doing that he wasn't? There didn't even seem to be a slot for the gunman to reload the weapon.  
  
"THE BACKPACK!" Youngman screamed over the fire, the gun burst illuminating his face, "ITS SOMETHING WITH THE BACKPACK!" Reeves looked at him strangely. He tore a pack off a dead, or fallen grunt. His firepower lasted. The bullets didn't seem to stop they kept coming in just in time to meet radioactive-soldier skull. The clever half of Reeves's mind thought: What the hell was in these backpacks? The warmongering half of his mind though: Who the hell cares?  
  
They cleared four of the six sections. Now thousands of freaks were coming in, slowed only by the crowd ahead of them. By this time they all ditched their military issue arms and bore the grunt standard shotgun accompanied by a huge heavy backpack. Reeves carried three guns, two in each hand, and one spare. Five of six now. They gave a short cheer to celebrate that they made it to the sixth area. They soon realized there was nothing to cheer about. The door that lead to the next safe room was not only pre-bombarded with mutants, undead, freaky, and just plain normal grunts but also the door was electronically locked. The control room was going to be hard to get to.  
  
They had very short seconds to think. They darted their bodies around picking off the grunts rising from the radiation. They angrily shot their weapons and the freak grunts speedily crawling along walls and ceilings. They defended themselves against the living, dying, or dead, grunts trying to push them into the fallout and make them one of their kind. Wallace spotted the controls room. It was merely a five-foot depression in the wall adjacent to the door and was protected by a single pane of glass. He ran at the glass and dove into it, avoiding the undead grunt at its proper entrance. He flipped a couple switches and the door slowly opened. Wallace kicked the undead soldier down from the behind and ran to the unlocked door. Reeves followed close behind. The big angry mob of freaks came too. Time was short and Youngman was still about sixty feet away. Wallace pressed against door, breathing heavily, and keeping his palm on the lock. He and Wallace were safe but Youngman was still out there. Reeves was on the ground with his back turned, also catching breath, he wouldn't know what happened. Once the door was locked Youngman would have to go all the way to the control panel just to unlock it again. Wallace had a heavy choice. But it was only logical! If he left the door open they would all probably die. If they lost just one, they could still show their wives back home they were still alive and fighting, the operation wasn't a failure like mission command said.  
  
He slammed the lock button hard. He felt the gust of air as the electronic locked sealed the door shut all around. He felt the shake. The slight vibration of Youngman, slamming against the metal door. Reeves jumped back from his position on the floor. He saw his screaming face. His hand scraped at the six-inch window. Wallace felt the heavier rumble of scatted shotgun shells and sharp claws. Reeves saw the blood spray and drip on the window. His face slid from view of the small window. Wallace felt his body thud against the door. Reeves saw the blood. Wallace truly felt the blood. Infecting him. Spreading through him. The blood carried hate. Revenge. 


	8. The Confrontation

Roger Fent stared nervously at his group of advisors. They all looked at him strangely, wondering what he called the meeting for. He took a deep breath.  
  
"Men. We have made a mistake, a grave mistake. Apparently Operation Counterstrike was not completely a failure."  
  
The advisors, including Mr. Klatt the head scientist and Mr. Brammer the military strategist, stirred in their seats. They mumbled to each other.  
  
"There are…still…three men. They are still alive and fighting. They know that…that we forgot about them, but they are fighting anyway. They have almost reached the slipgates actually."  
  
Brammer spoke up, "What?! How could that be? We haven't been getting any reads from the complex for the last two days! How do you know there are still men in there?"  
  
"Well, we lost record of them after their power armor was exhausted. It was a strange coincidence, a freak mishap due to radio waves and magnetism. We were planning to do a week of scans on the complex, beginning from three days ago when Operation Counterstrike began. Because of the power outage we could only get minor details on the scans. For example we used to get the mount of power used in the room, camera readings, temperature and etcetera. But the best reads we could get now are as detailed as electrical doors opening and closing and computer logs. This trio of men, Daniel Wallace, Sean Youngman, and Alice Reeves has made it through most of the sections in the complex. Because of our limited readings we don't know how they made it to some parts but our last scan told us they had just exited the chemical storage chambers."  
  
An advisor spoke up, "Do the scans provide any information if the slipgates are still operational or if there are still any terrorists roaming the complex?"  
  
Fent answered him the best he could, "No our scans don't provide us with any of this information. I know you were all told the slipgates were destroyed and the complex was shut down for a week for clean up but that was a lie. The slipgates could very well still be working and by the scans we can tell that the surviving men are fighting something down there. As for the survivors dealing with the slip gate and the power core, well, they know the effects of destroying the core but they'll have to take matters into their own hands. It's too late and too dangerous to send the scientist group down there. Are there any more questions?"  
  
One of the older advisors questioned, "Will this be canceling out the use of the prototype anti-shock missile? It seems the missile has had much hard work put into it but will you sacrifice it for the sake of three lives?"  
  
"Well, although using the A2 Missile would be a quicker and cleaner operation than any means of shutting it down manually, we will have to take the survivors lives into consideration. Any more questions?"  
  
The advisors sat cold.  
  
"You'll have to be excusing me I have an appointment to get to." Fent closed and locked his briefcase, slid it off the black marble table and exited the room. Mr. Klatt left behind him with a sickening look on his face.  
  
He caught up to him in the hallway and slammed him against the wall. He grabbed him by the inside of his jacket.  
  
"Klatt? Klatt what are you doing? Get off of me!"  
  
"Mr. Fent your status may be higher than anyone else's here but you are lower than anyone else, anywhere."  
  
"What are you talking about? Stop speaking nonsense…"  
  
Klatt quickly interrupted him. "You know EXACTLY what I'm talking about. You knew the slipgates were on the whole time. You knew those men were still alive. You just needed to make up a story so when they shut down the gates they would understand what happened. You know that these aren't terrorists. Some hacker…Quake? You know these aren't earthly creatures. That slipgate complex is about a hundred feet from here! This place and the barracks! And now your going to kill the last three people who lived to tell the story…just so you can test your new toy? The A2, the happy bomb. Mass destruction but its contained. Ha. Keep using your freakish inventions this way. Soon you'll get yours."  
  
Fent gently shoved Klatt away, "So you've been doing some snooping but no matter what you discover now will help. The A2 is already scheduled for a prompt launch and a new slipgate research enter is already being built. You keep doing your job and I'll do mine. Good day, mister Klatt." Fent dusted his jacket off and walked down the elegant but professional looking hallway. He straightened his tie and walked out the door. Klatt was going to need a niece piece of armor and a big gun. He was going in. 


	9. Hell Freezes Over

Wallace and Reeves trudged, guiltily, down the halls of the complex. They could relax; the monsters didn't reach this area, yet. Soon they would break through that door and flood the small rooms. They both had a trail of blood behind them, however Reeves was much thicker. He had taken a lot of injuries in the chemical storage room. Perhaps the task would be easier if he had power armor, but it was sacrificed in order to open the door. They were in the cooling chamber. Spider legs of pipes carrying frozen material, coolant fluid, and cold CO2 and nitrogen, streamed out from all over. The parallel room was the heating chamber. It contained many burning ovens, electrical heating grids, water heating grids, and heat vents and ducts sprawled about.  
  
At least they would have one problem solved. They could stop the grunts from growing in the chemical vats using the cooling systems. They decided to overheat the place. Reeves manned the destruction and Wallace sat at the door's small window making sure it works. Bam. A shotgun pummeled a frozen pipe. Bam. Bam. Bam. Cold liquid dripped and sprayed all over the room. Reeves poured some cold water in the bullet wound under his right breasts. It stung bad. Another shot and some white gas spilled out of a vent and into the room. The frost and icicles in the room grew bigger. What Wallace saw was completely the opposite.  
  
Huge pipes lining the chemical storage vats exploded with fire. The pipe from which the chemicals poured out of soon turned into a flaming waterfall. Vats started exploding with toxins like hot grease on a gigantic frying pan. The room's green glow quickly turned red. Some walls crumbled from the heat. The soldiers, grunts, undead, and freaks ran around screaming in burning pain. Their chest burst and blackened organs poured out into the vats, only to be burnt again. It was safe to move on.  
  
Next stop, filtration plant. Tons of water and chemicals poured from pipes into huge recycling, filtering, and purifying machines. They were going to have to travel these pipes once again to make it to the heart of the trouble. Ground zero. The slipgates. The only problem was to stop the flow of water into the machines or else they'd be pulled in. The two of them climbed up the short ladder to plan this strategy from overhead, on the hanging metal grated, sub-ceiling.  
  
"Which machine do you think we're gonna have to blow?" Wallace asked.  
  
"Well we can't make a mistake, or we'll end up flooding the place." Reeves warned, "That machine over there has large enough pipes but I'm not sure where it could be heading. The other machine over here we definitely can't fit into but the signs say it's heading to the slipgate-testing field."  
  
"How 'bout that one? Its looks large enough to fit us and it looks like it's going the same direction as those other pipes" Wallace suggested.  
  
Reeves overlooked the machine. "Okay, here goes a lot" He dropped a grenade onto the machine and it ripped open in a horrible mess. Thankfully they avoided it, being suspended by the metal grating but their further inspection proved it still life threatening. The machine they happened to explode was indeed connected to the slipgates but that wasn't a good thing. The grunts must have been teleporting from the slipgates and crawling into these pipes. These pipes which lead into the chemical storage. How did they know they lead to chemical storage? Well the flaming chemicals mixed with severed organs pouring out of the opposite pipe answered that.  
  
"At least we know where those soldiers were coming from? Heh…" Wallace said, with an unsure grin. The room was quickly filling with a supply of water, flaming acid, and dead and living soldiers. They had little time. Reeves ducked out from the grating and tossed another grenade at a random machine. Gears shot out and metal shrapnel floated in the mix. They jumped down and into the pipes quickly, making a small barrier of parts from the machine to hold off the living soldiers. They came to an abrupt stop, only about fifty feet into the pipe. The pipe they were taking was certainly heading to the slipgates but it cut though the dreaded chemical storage room first. Fiery debris and charred corpses lay in their path. They'd have to get rid of it all but chemicals dripped from the ceiling into the pipe like green fireballs. They would have to go back into the heating chamber and make sure this hell froze over. 


	10. Heavens Reversed

A few more rounds of fire into the heating chamber and the hells and heavens reversed. Reeves saw the fiery spectacled death of the heating room. Steam and hot water filled the room, leaving little room for air. Reeves ran to he cooling chamber turned a couple of knobs and set the building to use the backup cooling system and returned to see the after effect of his work.  
  
Wallace saw the molten vats and charred bodies quickly cool. Burning fluid soon returned to normal. It slowed, hardened, and eventually froze. The hellish nightmare they once ran through had now been turned into a blue ice paradise. Reeves and Wallace walked out of the temperature control systems room and into chemical storage. It was beautiful. Ice hung elegantly from the high ceiling and mutant warriors froze in place. Youngman's screaming corpse lay against the door. His chest was torn open and his whole body covered in a deep frost. It was a devastatingly sad site but they must not waste there time. The pulled off a couple feet of debris and continued down the hole. The tube lead to the short-range slipgate field. This was not the slipgates from which the beasts were coming in but it was awful close to it.  
  
This network of pipes was much easier to navigate than the others, for it was much larger, and wasn't filled with poisonous fumes. Something hummed around the corner.  
  
"What the hell is that?" Reeves said suspiciously, still bleeding from his wounds.  
  
"Must be the slipgate engines. It looks like we are getting pretty close.  
  
As they walked along the water level began to rise. They trudged through it, up to their knees, now waist, eventually they struggled to keep their chin above water. They had to move on, they were so close. The humming got louder. Reeves realized that they were traveling at a decent pace in the water but now they seemed to be going a little fast, very fast actually. They weren't just swimming they were being pulled in. Somewhere along the line they had made a wrong turn and returned to the filtration plant. Now a huge filtering machine was sucking them in. The hum was loud. The water was fast. Louder and louder. Fast and faster. They had gotten close enough to see the monstrosity that was dragging them forward. Four huge grinding turbines sat behind a thin metal grating. They grabbed to whatever little grip they could. Reeves got sucked back. His body slammed against the grating and loosened it. A burst of bubbles came out of his mouth where he would have said "Oomph!" Wallace too was feeling the pull but activated his power armor to synthesize a fake amount of weight and slow him down. Wallace slowly and unsteadily stepped toward Reeves trying to pull him in. With all the injuries and brass shells delivered to him, he didn't have the strength or the will to fight back from the powerful current. The upper right corner of grating had ripped out of the tubing. Wallace pushed forward trying to grab Reeves. Another piece tore from its holding. Wallace swung at Reeves and grabbed a strap near his chest. Reeves was now dangling from a couple pieces of metal, inches away from the spinning turbines. Wallace had a good grip on his bullet strap but the water pushed his body forward, making him loose stability. Wallace was balanced on one foot, leaning forward, Reeves in hand. He had too much weight against him. He let go of Reeves to gain stability. Reeves flew back and looked with total shock at Wallace. Reeves shot back into the turbines taking the metal grating with him. It was too much for the machine to handle. It tore Reeves up to his waste. Reeves's body, along with the metal grating, jammed the turbines. The water quickly drained and the both of them got a gasp of air. For one of them it would be there last gasp. Reeves was in so much pain. He could feel the innards of the machine still spinning fast, struggling to get the turbines running. The twisted his organs around metal rollers.  
  
"Ughugh! AARRGGHH!" Reeves spat up a ton of blood. "Ugh…why'd ya let go? ARRGGHHH!!!"  
  
Wallace fell back in shock, not believing Reeves's half-body was still moving. "I-I-I don't…"  
  
"Ugh" There was a loud splat as a pool of blood poured from his mouth. The turbines turned on again for a short second. He got pulled in a little more. His face was dead white.  
  
Wallace immediately spilled the truth "I-I'm sorry! It was my fault! You could have had some power armor to save yourself but I was too conceited and used yours instead! I killed Youngman it was my fault! I shut the door on him!"  
  
"Huraaaggghhh" Reeves head bobbed down "I-I know. I caught you on both incidents. When I was your age, I would've...hurghghg…would've done the same thing. Just go. G-g-go on. Finish this…hwagh…huuurgh…ughagaghablurrrrgh" The turbines pulled him in more and more. A sickening mix of blood and vomit came from his mouth.  
  
"Urghergh…urgh…arrrgh...arrrarrrrgh…" Blood came from every orifice, his eyes, his ears, and his mouth. "I-I-I can't see! I can't hear…I can't…breathe…" A final spill of blood came out right before the turbines turned on again, pulling him in up to the neck, turning off again, and then turning on, just to show Wallace the violent cinema of Reeves skull being pressed and cracked open, then being sucked in. As if the machine had some vengeance against him.  
  
Wallace cried. He cried blood. Blood in honor of those he killed. Blood for Youngman. Blood for Reeves. The two who defended him through every gunfight while he tinkered at some computer. The two who would die at the cross for him. But Wallace wouldn't risk a chance of injury for either of them. Wallace wanted to die. He wanted to die for them. But he had one more thing to do before this was all over. He had to finish this. It was Reeves's last work. It was no one's fault but his own that his comrades were dead. But Wallace had two lives to pay for. He could only afford one. It was his own fault and he would do what Reeves and Youngman would have done. He was going to destroy those bastards. He was the demon carrying the wings of an angel. He had the hope of two angels with him. 


	11. One Last Step

Wallace trudged through the large, ice-cracked pipes. A frozen bittersweet world sat around him, icy dead bodies, frost covered corpses, and a friend. It was cold now. Really cold. Not outside, but inside. Wallace shook partially from the low temperature and partially from the two deaths he caused. He saw the flames licking out from the heat control room.  
  
And it all faded away. As if the steel tubing was mirroring his mind, it faded away. The memories of death and agony stopped and one direct goal came to mind: Destroy. He was now traveling down a black tunnel with a small light at the end. When he reached the light he looked up and examined its source. A ceiling-hung florescent light flickered, beaming its dim rays through a drainage cap. Wallace climbed the rusted ladder and removed the cap, a sign on the wall welcoming him saying: "Short Range Slipgate Field Testing." He grinned and lifted himself out.  
  
The room was a long corridor, adorning a metal platform at each end. The two platforms were identical, about one foot by one foot each, rising about four feet off the ground. The platforms held a patchwork of crystalline shapes under glass with wires running out of them into the pedestal. The pedestal was lined with some lights and dials. Suspended directly above each platform was a tower of the same proportion with a bright light aiming down, each marked with either a red "A" or "B".  
  
In the center of a room was a small control station with some switches and levers. "So…this is a slipgate." He gently kicked one of the platforms. "This is what's causing all the trouble, 'eh? May as well find out how it works." Wallace pulled a worn knife from a holder at his waist. The letters NIN were professionally engraved, resembling the words on a tombstone. He propped the blade at platform A, and flipped a large switch labeled "INITIATE" at the control station. Sparks shot out of both towers and a knife sat on top of platform B. These smaller short-range versions were nothing compared to the massive long distance stations that sat a room ahead. He walked to the other end of the room, gave the knife a quick inspection, and then pocketed it. Beyond this door lay the source of all this. Ground zero. The long range slipgate field-testing. Wallace's hands reached for the lever to open the door.  
  
The door at Wallace's left side swung open. It was a strange man with some armor unskillfully thrown over some work clothes. He nervously aimed the M16 he held at Wallace. Wallace looked barely concerned, "Too bad you didn't pick up a shotgun. Don't know why but they got an awful lot of ammo."  
  
The man let the rifle fall to his side and sighed, "Thank god! Survivors! I knew there were some of you left! I followed your path of destruction in from the entrance, awful lot of chemicals in the way. So, where are the others…by the way I'm Klatt".  
  
The giddy man held out a lonely hand, expecting a shake. Wallace nodded and continued, "Wallace. Survivors? Heh heh, there were none. Just a couple others that are fresh dead. Whatcha' carrying with ya'?"  
  
Klatt dwelled on the unhappy answer he was given. He though, "I'm gonna die down here too." He twisted his head to look at his belongings and told Wallace, "I got some extra ammo, a couple med kits, and a power charger."  
  
Wallace looked at the digital meter attached to his armor. The device he held had taken a severe beating. Through all the dents and scratches in the screen it read 1.4. He was in major lack of armor.  
  
"Toss me the charger." Wallace grunted.  
  
Out of fear Klatt threw the cylindrical tool with brass prongs extending out the top. Wallace inserted the prongs into a socket in the armor's left side. The meter shot up and up and he let it rise to 100, while the charger's screen decreased to 50. He felt the renewed lightness of the armor and comfortable flexibility, despite some bullet holes with white threading sticking out. Wallace gave Klatt the charger back, "So why did you come here?"  
  
"I have come to help you. There are many things the NIN corporation is not telling you. There's some important information you'll want to know."  
  
Wallace laughed, knowing the news would be completely irrelevant anyway.  
  
"NIN knew what was going on the whole time. They left these slipgates on: they were letting the monsters come in at completely free will. You may have noticed the short amount of first-wave soldiers NIN sent in. They knew they would all die so they used as little as possible just to make it seem like hey were trying to help. This place is a test zone, there dropping a bomb here. It's a special bomb, the "A2". It is supposed to have the effects a modern nuclear bomb however it has a shield of hyperactive atoms that will stop the blast-radius. NIN's leader Jonathan Fent is trying to sell it to the military so that they could do massive amounts of damage without allowing the bomb reach innocent areas. I'm not one hundred percent sure but the bomb is supposed to be arriving soon. Oh yeah, Fent knows your hear but he could care less."  
  
"You sure do talk a lot. Well if the bombs gonna be here soon we better clean up this mess quick" Wallace suggested.  
  
"What? You want to go deeper in? I came here to help you get out!"  
  
"Hey, your from NIN? You know an awful lot of there secrets…you are going to help me, yes, but not to get out. Do you know how to turn the core off?"  
  
"What? What?! Your crazy! I'm not going in there, if we don't go soon we'll be toasted!"  
  
"Look I don't care what you do. I am trying to shut this place down and do it right. You know how to do it, so it seems you're with me."  
  
"No the bomb will clear this place out, we can forget about this whole thing, come on!"  
  
"You haven't seen those freaks…I wouldn't flinch if I saw them still fightin' after gettin' hit with a bomb. Fuck your cowardice and help me go against NIN. Think about what you're doing, you're only going to end up back at a NIN office anyway."  
  
Klatt gave it a long thought. "Alright, what do we have to do?"  
  
"I'll tell you what I know: Beyond this door is the slipgate and the core, Probably a nice sum of monsters in there too. All you have to do is shut the core down as fast as possible, I'll hold off anything coming your way. Got it?"  
  
"Yeah."  
  
"Ready?"  
  
"Yeah."  
  
The door swung open. 


	12. White. Black. Red.

A flurry of gunfire quickly filled the room. The monsters were being shot down left and right but coming in just as fast. A slew of grunts blasted at Wallace and Klatt. Soldiers were pouring in through the large slipgate platform (A replica of the ones from the earlier room only much larger). Rotweilers leaped at the two gunmen but only to be shot down in mid-air. A rusted metal door lay opposite to them. The small room contained a gruesome battle. At just the right time Wallace took aim and blasted a load of shotgun shells clear through a group of men. The path to the door was open. Klatt and Wallace leaped over dead bodies into the next room, a narrow hall, still being following by freakish grunts.  
  
About fifty feet into the tunnel they came to there target. The power core. A large canister, about ten feet wide and reached from the floor to the twenty-foot ceiling, was covered in a metal shell. Several monitors hung off the sides of the canister with consoles attached. Only Klatt knew how to shut it down. Klatt dashed to one of the keyboards and typed away, throwing the rifle behind his back. Wallace took aim at the hall holding the creatures back. Klatt screamed over the gunfire from behind Wallace, "Okay! To shut the power core down we have to override the command menus from the long-range slipgates! The connection has been destroyed so you'll have to do it manually! The only way to do it is to knock out the terminals at slipgate A and B! I'll have to command the controls while you take them out!"  
  
Wallace twisted his head behind him, still shooting into the hall, "So you're saying I'm going back into that room to destroy a computer and then do it again?! With an army of these freaks still gating in?!"  
  
Klatt winced, thought about it, then said, "Yeah"  
  
"Alright than!" Wallace violently cocked the shotgun and dove into the hall. He had a quick second to breath, the hall was empty but more were coming. "This is the perfect time to use this" He opened a small pouch that was at his left breast. He pulled out a small foil packet with to pills inside. He ripped the top off the packet and gulped a pill down. He began moving at an incredible pace. He shot his body around to counter every movement in the room. He lived at the moment and saw everything with a sharp eagle eye but remember it as a deep blur.  
  
He was back at Long Range Field A. He didn't remember why though. He knew he had to kill the monsters that were gating in, from the pad right in front of him. He looked around the room. Wall. Monster. Platform. Platform! He was about to take a step but realized not to. Wall. Floor. Monster. Computer. Wall. Computer! He looked blankly at its screen. He tapped a couple keys and got frustrated because he forgot what he was doing he. In anger he pointed the shotgun at the screen and remembered. BOOM! And the screen tumbled back with the computer dangling by damaged wires. He took a couple more shots and ran out the room.  
  
He didn't stop at the core but just yelled at Klatt to open Slipgate B's door. While running past the core Klatt called to Wallace, "Here! Take it! It's all I've got!" Wallace saw an unbalanced pack wobble through the air and his drugged body grabbed at it quickly. He opened the pack to reveal a small amount of grenades. He strapped the pack around his waist, tossed a grenade its room B and yelled at Klatt too shut the door while some unsuspecting beasts looked at him in shot.  
  
Blood and steel erupted down the hall, with the door dragging along. He shot some more, tossed another grenade inside, saw bodies flying across the room and gained access into the area. A quick shot was aimed at the second terminal but a grunt popped up and unwillingly took the bullet. He was about to shoot again but another soldier came up from behind. Then from the side. One slammed into his side, another one knocked him down. On his back, Wallace blasted forward, sending the freak-marine off his chest and against the wall. He hopped to his feet and in a graceful swing of the gun he cleared room for the shot. Boom, boom, boom! And the computer's silicon pulp hung from a small desk. He shot at the monsters while backing up out of the room.  
  
He ran back to Klatt who had a smile on his face. "Great! It's almost shut down!" Klatt said, typing away at the keyboard. Monsters were closing in on them. Time was limited. "I've gained access to all the important data for NIN. Let's see…current projects, security systems, financial info," Then Klatt's face turned white, "…A…2" He tapped a key and Klatt read the screen aloud, "A2 missile planned for impact at NIN Slipgate Complex it approximately sixteen minutes. They already launched the missile!"  
  
"SHUT THE FUCK UP, KLATT!" Wallace yelled holding the soldiers back, "TURN OFF THE GOD DAMN CORE AND WE CAN GET OUT OF THIS PLACE!"  
  
"Okay, okay!" Klatt scrolled through some more areas, "Weapon systems, power consumption," He tapped at a key, "barracks power consumption, office power consumption, ah! Slipgate complex power consumption!" He tapped a key. "Power consumed, power information, power traffic, power source!" Another tap, "Central power core! Deactivate core!" He pushed one last button and cold smoke erupted from the power core. Static electricity branched through the core and the metal casing slowly lowered into the ground or fell off. Inside was one of the most frightening things the two of them have ever seen. In the center of the power core should have been a super-active radiating blue fluid. The glowing blue liquid was there in the canister but something else with it, a collection of black globs. The black globs moved in synchronization and floated towered the glass. The globs formed a shape and it came into view. It was some kind of mutated freak. He was huge, filling the whole canister with its transformed body. It reached its hand up to the glass. The monitors flashed in large red letters, "WARNING! POWER CORE STILL ACTIVE! FOREIGN MATERIAL DETECTED!"  
  
Klatt and Wallace looked at each other, "Now what?!" Wallace questioned in fear. "Well um…nothing…it's over…no, wait! Back-up power! The back-up power supply it should be right…." Klatt twisted around, catching a small door behind him, "…Well that should be it."  
  
"Well let's go then!" Wallace said, giving the freak another look.  
  
Klatt reached for the control panel but when he tried to open the door a robotic voiced announced, "ALL DOORS SEALED. DOORS WILL BE LOCKED UNTIL FOREIGN MATERIAL HAS BEEN REMOVED."  
  
"Crap!" Klatt profaned, "We'll have to get rid of that…thing"  
  
"Whatever it takes," Wallace courageously said and without a second thought he tossed a grenade at the core. In a split second the grenade exploded, core glass shattered and the fluid gushed out. Klatt and Wallace immediately activated their power armor to adapt to the chemical. The mutant creature shook it head, flinging drops of liquid all over. The room began glowing blue due to the radiant light. Once the flood of core-fluid lowered they shut down the power armor and only sent protection to their feet so that they can safely trudge through it.  
  
The freak was a human shape but horribly disfigured. The lower legs had grown very wide, as did the lower arms. The hands and feet each gained three large claws that grabbed angrily at the walls. The back had spread wide and had a small neck on top to connect the freakish head. The skull was somewhat triangular with a narrow mouth but could open it very wide. Small slits of eyes had lost pupils but gained a fiery red shade. The claws of its right hand swished at Wallace who ducked, leaving the hand to splash through the core-fluid. Wallace sent pump after pump of shotgun ammunition into the beast. He showed no reaction and just swiped and grabbed at them. Fortunately the room wasn't very wide so the monstrosity didn't have that much space for movement. But he was still a major threat.  
  
The two men dodged the swipes and were flanked by the creature's foot, slowly lowering on them. They leaped to the side and Klatt tried for the door again. Nothing. It still detected the creature…but how? He was out of the core? And what happened to the core's destruction? Was it not supposed to be a massive explosion? There was no time to dwell on such questions; he joined Wallace in the fight.  
  
Wallace reached in his pouch and tossed three grenades at the monster. They impacted just below his ribcage, causing an explosion in the beast's waist. Its skin flapped open and human-like organs were exposed. He began shooting at its guts but they didn't seem to be damaged much and it didn't effect the monster much either. Wallace saw the creature's arm come swinging at him. He fell back and shot wildly. In strange sickening luck he shot a ceiling tile out that once held a soldier's dead corpse. The corpse hung by some straps that got caught on the ventilation, his pale white skin drooped through the armor. This was a Super-Heavy soldier, Wallace heard about them just before Operation: Counterstrike. The super-heavy soldier packed a heavy punch: A mini-rocket launcher, grenades, and a chain gun. Wallace dropped the shotgun and tossed the backpack. He grabbed the chain gun out of the dead hands, swiped some grenades, and a mini-rocket form the launcher.  
  
The beast plunged both his arms into the shallow layer of core-fluid and splashed it about. Brass shells from Klatt's rifle made "kerplunk" noises as they swished out of the gun and into the mess. Wallace tore away at the beast's skin, up the leg, up the torso, he kept the gun directed at the shoulder, than onto the face. Through all the firepower being pushed into it the beast never seemed to be in pain. It jerked its arm back and slammed it downward. How long were they going to keep this up? The fight was going nowhere. Someone had to make a move and it was Wallace. He wildly flung the mini-rocket upward, when it was mere inches from the torn open hole in the creatures gut, Wallace shot out a small burst of bullets that beautifully ripped into the metal casing of the rocket and caused it to explode in mid- air. Monster organs slid out of the opening and the beast began coughing up blood. An unheard noise suddenly stopped and the beast's slayers continued delivering lead into the open wound.  
  
It couldn't take it anymore. It flailed its arms crazily and flopped down face-first onto the floor with a loud slam. It quickly got over the pain and began to lift itself up. The large ugly head rose up and met Wallace's eyes. Wallace stared into its doming red eyes as if to show it who is the tamer  
  
Before the beast raised itself Wallace placed his pouch in to the wet salivating mouth and unloading a speeding round of bullets. The skull exploded violently and he remembered Reeve's terrible death.  
  
Reality came back; time stopped speeding and returned to normal. Memories were clarified and the original target was clear. A single message woke them, "Approximately five minutes until A2 impact" Klatt tried the door once more and yet still the door would not open. He turned and immediately saw the problem. A group of wires had been hanging from the mutant's brain into the upper half of the core tower. The wires stretched through his body into the bottom half. Wallace noticed this at the same time and leaped up on the creature's shoulders and sliced the wires in a swift cut of his knife. "Try the door. Quick." Klatt try once more and it slid open.  
  
"So what the fuck was that, Klatt?"  
  
"How the hell should I know? It sure as hell wasn't the power core. And didn't they say by destroying the power core there would be a mass explosion?"  
  
"Yeah…but that thing couldn't have been like the others…how was it hooked up? It must have been feeding? Maybe they didn't want us touching the cores because they wanted to keep those freaks alive as there little secret."  
  
"I don't know but we'll have to find this shit out when we escape this place" Klatt said, now in the much smaller back-up power room, wiring some cables together,  
  
Wallace laughed to himself about the escaping part.  
  
"There…almost done," Klatt fiddled around some more.  
  
"Approximately two minutes until A2 impact" the computer system called.  
  
"HURRY UP KLATT!"  
  
"I've almost got it! Just gotta get it here…here…and…here!"  
  
"Power core shut down initiated. Power core will shut down in one minute."  
  
"Come on quick!" Wallace yelled. He grabbed Klatt by the wrist and led him down a narrow hallway to slipgate B.  
  
Klatt thought, "This is not the way out?! Where are we going? Where is he taking me?"  
  
Wallace went head on into the grunts, still gating in. He got into the Slipgate B room and propped Klatt against a control terminal at the other side of the room. "Get ready to gate me." Wallace said.  
  
"What?! Gate you? You mean the other side of the building?"  
  
"No. Where they are coming from. Gate me there. Now."  
  
"Approximately one minute until A2 impact."  
  
Wallace commanded, "Make sure the coordinates are correct." He stepped onto the platform.  
  
Klatt typed away.  
  
"Approximately forty-five seconds until A2 impact."  
  
Wallace looked up and saw the huge white light activate and glow brilliantly.  
  
"I'm sorry. Sorry Klatt. I hope you realize your not making it out of here. I have killed far too many friends for my own benefit."  
  
"Approximately thirty seconds until A2 impact." The robotic voice echoed  
  
"This time it will be different though. You will die, yes, but not just so I can save my skin, not for my own benefit, but for the benefit of mankind. I will stop this war once and for all."  
  
The light lowered so that is was about three inches from Wallace's bruised head.  
  
"Fifteen seconds until impact"  
  
"Hurry up, Klatt!"  
  
Klatt typed away silently, in great fear.  
  
"Ten…Nine…Eight…"  
  
Rotors beneath the surface under Wallace's feet began to rumble. The crystalline structure on the platform began glowing.  
  
"Six…five…four"  
  
Light from the top and bottom of the slipgate encased Wallace's body.  
  
Sparks exploded from it and Wallace was gone.  
  
Klatt looked up at the ceiling, at the direction oh his coming fate.  
  
"Two seconds…one"  
  
  
  
Knife. Reeves. Knife. Reeves. Wallace. Youngman. Knife. Klatt. Knife. Youngman. Wallace. Klatt. Wallace. Youngman. Wallace. Reeves. Youngman. Klatt…Knife. White. White. White. White. White. White. Black. Red. Black. Falling. Black. Knife. Wallace. Youngman. Reeves. Klatt. White. Black. Red. Falling…Black. Black. Black. Black. Black. Black. Black. Black. World. 


End file.
